Celebrating 59 years of "Merdeka"

I translate a poem I posted on my FB yesterday:

Redeeming Merdeka.

Merdeka may mean

Sovereignty and a robust economy

In the world's boiling pot

Measured by the bourse's percentages

In the jaws of omnipotent capitalism

Lest only empty slogans remain

Taunting the village children , they plead and cry

Together with the city dwellers, suffering

The divide  between income and spending

Who will measure the difference

Between the lives of the masters and those below

Is it sufficient that they continue to live

Merely hanging on to old promises and colourful pictures

As their world remain grey ? 

Seremban

31 August 2016.

A long round trip to Muar.

31.8.2016.

As we crossed the long bridge over Muar river at Muar the morning of Tuesday, 30th. August, I remarked to my passangers, these waters have flowed down all the way from Kuala Pilah, my home town !

I had a prior appointment in PJ that afternoon, to see a therapist about my hurt back, but Dekna wanted me to drive her to the Muar Courts for a case, because Hanif had to attend a meeting in Bukit Jalil. She assured me I'd be able to make it to my therapist. She was needed, anyway, because I don't know the location of the address given, and she could use her smartphone to find the place.

True enough, Dekna completed her court work by 10.30 a.m.( a postponement of case, as expected) and after stopping at the famous "343" coffee shop in front of the Muar bus terminal for the famous local coffee, roti kiap, nasi lemak and fresh otak-otak, off we left for PJ. I estimated we'd be there by 1p.m., we'd have a nice lunch somewhere, and then I'd go for my therapy.

I never made it to the therapy.

It rained, heavily most of the way, when driving out of Seremban at 6.25 a.m., all the way to Muar. Turning north to PJ from Muar, it was still wet, and the car radio reported some flood-hit roads in KL and PJ. I thought "don't get caught in any flooded road". What caught me instead was a jammed fuel pump, right in heavy traffic on road PJU 1/45, when the address I was looking for was PJU 1/42.

The car just stopped moving while the engine stuttered, and then stalled. I signal to the SUV behind me to move on, that I was stuck. Immediately I thought it felt like the fuel feed was blocked. It was an old driver's guess, and in the end it was true.

In the mean time I just couldn't let my car sit there in the middle of the junction  blocking all traffic. It was 1 p.m. and there was a CIMB bank right there to add to the midday road chaos I'd just created.

On looking back now, how fortunate it was that I met  human kindness, one  that must be experienced to be truly appreciated. 

There we were, an irritated me, my displeased missus, my flabbergasted Federal Counsel daughter, and my 2-year old hyperactive grand-daughter, all stuck in the car, stuck in the middle of a PJ road, and darn well stuck in the middle of peak hour traffic !

Out of nowhere, a bespectacled, middleaged Chinese man came to my window, and suggested we push the the car to the side of the road. Have you tried to push a stalled car with dead power steering? And this is a 2.8 liter sedan with large 245x45x18 tyres ! And with one not so young though eager  pusher?  Again out of nowhere two Malay guys came, and after pushing the car back and forth, with me struggling with the steering, all three finally managed to get it close to the left curve, out of traffic flow. I got out and thanked all three, but as quickly as they appeared, they disappeared.

There was no way I was going to make the 4 pm appointment, so I called the therapist and told him about my predicament. PJU 1/45 and 1/42 seemed close enough, I said, so maybe I could just walk,   but my would-be therapist assured me it wasn't. For the next 3 hours I made frantic calls for help - from a friend who knows these things (cars etc.), to an unaswering AAM, my No.2 Son in Subang Jaya and one or two other calls. In the meantime, it was fortunate that where we were stuck, there was a goreng pisang stall, so we were able to have our goreng pisang lunch !

Sam was in Shah Alam, but I wasn't very helpful in telling him my exact location. Luckily his wife was with him, and she located my position on her smartphone.   Sam made the necessary contacts, and by about 4.30 pm my car was safely on the haulage lorry to the workshop Sam knows in Kelang, maybe 25  km away. I mention this because these people charge according to car size and distance. The driver asked for RM 280 ! Sam negotiated for RM 250, and Dekna mercifully had the cash to pay for me.

I need to mention another pleasant incident that adds to my appreciation for human kindness. While waiting by the car for the haulage lorry to come, a Chinese guy who parked his car close by came over, maybe because he saw my engine hood up, or maybe because he saw that his was  the same type of car. The thing was, he approached Sam and I, and inquired what the problem was. He then made a call to his regular workshop, which he said was close by, to ask for assistance. Unfortunately, his mechanic was engaged and couldn't help right away. I thanked  the man anyway, and realised how much I've underestimated common decency, and hope to be a better man for it after all this.

As I said earlier, my first guess about the fuel pump was correct. But Ah Huat of M.B.T. Automative Specialist at Bandar Botanic, Klang wasn't guessing. He used his digital diagnosis monitor and made a manual fuel-feeder jet check to confirm this. The required part had to be ordered, and was to be delivered before 8 p.m. (it was 6.30 p.m. then). Fortunately the part came before that, and I was able to start for home at about 7.45 p.m.

This was supposed to be a trip to a therapist in PJ. It became a long round trip to Muar. And it wasn't cheap. Excluding the petrol and the Smart-tag, the goreng pisang and thosai at the restaurant near Ah Huat's workshop, I was poorer by RM 1,020 in the end. But I was richer for the human kindness part of the story.

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Courting the Malay votes.

27.8.2016.

At a "warong" this morning, I had to share a table with another two patrons, because all other tables were occupied by people like me, having their late Saturday morning breakfast in the many similiar "warongs" in Ampangan. As I sipped my piping hot "teh O kosong", I couldn't  help hearing their conversation: it was about local politics. A gist of it was, that the MB only has the support of 3/8 of the NS Divisions; that the incumbents in Jelebu and Rasah are keen to take over the Negeri helm; that the proposed new party, Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (BERSATU), has been making its rounds in parts of NS and has caught the ears of the Malays.

With UMNO's current affliction with the Najib-created problems, the numbers crunched at the recent Sarawak State elections followed closely by the two Parliamentry bye-elections at  Sg. Besar, Selangor and Kuala Kangsar, Perak, it goes without saying the next GE would be about numbers, pure and simple. The party that gets them wins.

The Election Commission reported that UMNO received 3,252,484 votes in GE 13, out of the total 10,861,683 cast. A recent UMNO info says the party has 3,549,061 registered members, made up of 1,198,239 ordinary members, 1,364,947 Wanita, 607,336 Youth, and 378,539 Puteri. These are not overwhelming numbers when compared to each other. One obvious conclusion is that not all of the members voted for UMNO in GE 13. If BERSATU manages to attract many UMNO members away from the old party, it could spell big trouble for UMNO.

I've blogged much earlier about Najib's innately obtuse strategy of having the people around him handle the 1 MDB  debacle in and out of Parliament, and in and out of the country. Obviously if you lie in Parliament, it's a different category of deceit than your normal street bluff. And all the while, Najib hasn't actually even tried to answer the questions himself. The closest he came was when he chickened out of PWTC for the "Nothing To Hide" session he'd agreed to earlier, when he found out the Old Fox was there. Some "Pahlawan Bugis"!

I've blogged about the non-denial of the 2.6 billion donation. In fact the "bidan terjun" (literally: diving midwife) AG he hastily replaced Gani with went further to admit the banking in of money into his personal account: he said to the press, proudly holding the coloured diagram somebody must have drawn for him, unknowingly displaying more than was intended,  that the donation has mostly (more than 2 billion out of the 2.6) been returned to the donor, who happened to be one very dead Saudi King !

I've blogged about the disbandment of the PAC. I've blogged about the arrest of non-terrorist Khairuddin AND his terrible but equally non-terrorist lawyer for making the police report, under the anti-terrorist SOSMA. The sacking of Muhyiddin, Mukhriz and suspension of Shafie have also been referrred to earlier. Also, I wrote about "Big Hearted & Gentleman" Najib controlling the 2015 UMNO General Assembly, denying popularly elected Muhyiddin his rostrum, and silencing the strangely cowed delegates in an utterly bizarre conference, acting for all he cared in neither a big-hearted way, nor  in any  gentlemanly manner whatsoever!

Surely it's not impossible for the ordinary Malays to understand the facts:

1. Various and varying versions of the bull shit  have been put to Parliament.

2. A huge amount of money went into Najib's bank account.

3. Government Institutions have been tampered with: the office of the AG; the MACC; the Police; the PAC; the operations of the MoF; the Central Bank. This is not an exhaustive list, mind-boggling though it already is !

The very aggressive rebuttal by Najib and his team requires response, so that the Malays could compare the different view points. Let's take them one by one:

1. Mahathir cannot interfere.

Mahathir was not sacked, but resigned from the PM's job. People asked Mahathir to query Najib about 1MDB because he's the only one left to make Najib listen. DAP and PKR for some time have started raising questions, to no avail.

2. Mahathir should just pray to God and don't disturb the running of the government.

It's because of his piety that he's forced to do what he has done, because no one else seemed to make any impression on Najib.

(By the way, if that photo of Najib standing for prayer is untouched, his posture is incorrect: the right wrist should fold over the left, not the other way around !)

3. Now Najib is officiating several portions of the LRT in KL and PJ because he says, unlike Mahathir, he's concerned about public transport woes in the capital.

When was the first LRT plan tabled ? Moving the administration to Putrajaya hasn't contributed to unjamming the woes of KL/PJ traffic? Whose idea was Putrajaya ?

4. Billions were lost in Mahathir's time.

Business can suffer losses. The important thing is everything was above board. No money went into Mahathir's pocket. Anyway, where was Najib then ? Why didn't he make any noise ?

5. Malaysia has made the best Olympics showing ever under Najib.

Who was the Sports Minister, and the Education Minister under Mahathir ?

6. Without Mahathir now Proton is making progress.

Who started Proton ?

7. Ku Li and Musa Hitam have joined the fray to have a go at Mahathir.

Throughout his entire political career Musa was  hopelessly outmanoeuvered by the wily fox - Musa just can't stand the painful memory ! Yet Mahathir made him Chairman of Felda and Malaysia's Rep. to the UN and with full ministerial status. I don't think Musa would do the same if the position was reversed.

Ku Li lost to Mahathir in the fight for UMNO's Presidency. Like a sore loser, his team caused UMNO to be struck off by the ROS in 1987 and he formed S 46. And Ku Li said Mahathir is like a monkey who will not let go once he holds something. So he lost to a monkey! 

8. The 1MDB case has now gone to US DoJ, the AG of Switzerland, and Monetary Authority of Singapore.

This is not foreign interference as claimed by Ir.Idris Harun of Melaka. Surely he must have been a bright student to have that "Ir" before his name, even if he speaks like a Std. 6 student. We are talking about USA, not Cambodia (apologies to Hasan Malik, our ambassador there).

My fellow Malays ! God gave us thought. Think. Mahathir is no Nabi. Najib is no Nabi either. Look at the facts carefully. When Dollah didn't perform in the GE 12, Najib and Muhyiddin were instrumental in asking him to go, and he went.  Najib now says you cannot make a popularly elected PM go. Najib numerically performed worse in GE 13. And that was before 1 MDB. If Najib really loves UMNO and this country of ours, his one single action of resigning would save everyone the trouble. That would be very big hearted and very brave.

Or is there someone stopping him ?

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When

24.8.2016.

When

The swallows drop

 From the evening sky

And the sun slides 

Behind the western hills

When the cloak of night 

Pulls gingerly 

Across earth's beaten chest

When

Songs of yesteryear

Whisper through the silent trees

And memories stir

The cobwebs of time

When soft voices 

Murmur those old words of yesterday

And they hang 

Suspended

Restrained by faded lips

I pause

Tongue-tied

And fail to ask the question

When.

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What can we learn from the Rio Olympics ?

23.8.2016.

The Rio 2016 Olympics have just ended.

I've blogged about positive publicity. To prove my point, just view the uproar about that US swimmer's false report about having a gun pointed by Brazillian police at his head.  He escaped arrest by leaving on a plane while his team-mates were pulled off another later flight, and the whole story spilled out.

Watching the closing ceremonies live, we can surely genuinely appreciate the host's efforts and give them our true praise for work well done in the face of incredible odds, and unimagineable difficulties.

There was a write-up to-day that aptly made a fair assessment of each country's performance based on its population titled "Population-adjusted 2016 Olympic medals." Although USA came on top with the most medals, and Great Britain second, with populous China third, this report  perhaps put things in proper perspective. 

I'd tweeted earlier that I'm both happy and sad, that while my country got a few medals ( 4 silver & 1 bronze, said to be its best performance ever ), the number is meagre. Looking from the point of view of this population-adjusted performance, I was surprised Malaysia isn't at the bottom of the pile. India, with a population second only to China, is !

In fact at the top is Grenada, with 93.61 medals per 10 million population. Grenada has only 100,000 people ! USA only occupies number 43. Malaysia is ahead of 27 other countries.

I remember a write-up during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics about the supposedly physical advantages of the Negro athlete, specifically the "spur" on their heel bone that gave black athletes that extra "flick" when they run or jump. I remember the 100 meters was won by USA's Bob Hayes at 10 seconds flat, and he went on to become a successful American football player. To think about it, after more than half-a-century, the 100-meter sprint  has improved a mere 7 %! This with bigger athletes and better equipment and running surfaces !

One feature that has emerged through the years has been the dominance of the black athlete, male and female. I went through the Olympics on the You Tube, from London 1948,  and can see the rare few black male athletes and the even rarer female ones. The more recent games, up to Rio 2016, show how much the picture has changed. Where the black athletes were mostly dominating the sprints, now you see them dominating all events, including field events and the water sports. In the endurance races one hardly sees a non-black face in the victorious position anymore. And, remarkably, it doesn't end there. Even European countries like Sweden and Finland and Italy and, of course, Britain, display black athletes winning for them. Even Japan, non-European of course, won their remarkable silver medal in the premier 4 x 100 meter relay with the help of one "Cambridge", obviously of mixed black parentage.

There has been the thesis that family influence play an important part in the success of the athlete. Certainly in badminton in Malaysia, the Chong brothers, the Sidek brothers, and the Tan brothers could prove this  point. Golf also is full of parental influence on world-class performance.

Then there's the so-called college system of America. Study apparently is integrated with sports, or the sports itself is well established as a subject of study. It's important to recognize this because that integration as far as I know doesn't exist in Malaysia. Students are only supposed to study and pass examinations. Sports is for those who don't want to, or can't study.

In fact I remember back in my university days 50 years ago there was a saying among us students that the 'varsity was the grave yard for sportsmen. I remember a promising National 400-meter runner from V.I., Lee something, I can't remember his full name now, whose athletic career simply stopped when he became an undergraduate at the U.M. We had an inter-varsity game with Singapore University, you know when Lee Kuan Yew was declaring his "rugged society" and we bystanders at those games shouted "bugged society !", and other than that our teams didn't do particularly well.  

The other thing that has been mentioned when looking at the dismal performance of India is that of culture. India isn't without its sports of choice. Just look at cricket.  And field hockey. In fact Malaysia's earlier fame in field hockey in this part of the world was because its Indian citizens made the sports popular in the country. How the change of rules and astro-turf have changed field hockey !

That was also the case with badminton in Malaysia. There has always been a culture of badminton. In fact in the old days local neighbourhoods formed "badminton parties" when they wanted to start the game in the locality and to attract players to participate in the game.  Setting up the courts was easy, and the equipment  cheap, and you don't have to change the shuttle-cocks until all the feathers were gone ! To-day everybody, I mean everybody in Malaysia follows badminton. Luckily I was far-sighted enough to buy my own tv set in my own corner of the house, in addition to the large screen in the sitting room watched by the family.  I don't know how many games are listed in the Olympics, but my family only watched badminton, badminton and badminton !

Then we have sponsorship, both governmental and corporate. As it is, in Malaysia there is insufficient supply, or getting it is not easy. And in the US, at least, this is the key to the discovery,  and development, of talent in all sports, and most importantly, from an early age.  

Back to the black athlete, the US and Carribean Negroes may have benefitted from natural culling of the weak because of the terrible long journeys from Africa. The strong genes survived, and through migration to other parts of the western world , this is carried along. Then you say, what about the Kenyans and the Nigerians and the Ethopians who regularly excel in the Olympics ? I suggest this is also through natural selection because of the geography, climate and food, producing hardy and athletic stock.

The suggestion is much can be learned from environment and culture and physical development. My simplistic thesis is not even pretending to be scientific. It's just a view point by a sports enthusiast that may provoke thinking - about how we can do better at  future Olympics. Tokyo 2020 may be too near, but it's a nice target. 

And stop politicising sports. If you are a Chief Minister, and a budding cyclist wants a trainig bicycle that's too expensive for him, buy him one instead of ignoring his request and saying I didn't know. When that cyclist is successful and mentions the lack of assisstance, the blame olympics start.

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Positive Publicity

7.8.2016.

A more positive publicity for the just-started Rio Olympics would do wonders.

My impression is that the press, through all its media, is slanted negatively. Is there a bias against the staging of the Games for the first time in South America, a "summer" event being held in a southern "winter"?

From the beginning the news was rampant with all the problems with the constructions of the different venues and infrastructures, as if London in 2012 and the preceeding cities did not have them. But for poor Brazil they were made more stark.

Then there was the Zika scare being given maximum exposure, so much so many otherwise stout-hearted athletes suddenly became faint-hearted and too scared to come. As a keen follower of golf, I was particularly disappointed that some of the leading professional golfers have used this health scare as their excuse for not going to Rio, never mind the huge historic effort at introducing golf to these Games.  Except that just very recently Florida also announced the finding of zika there, where many of these millionaire players live. Now let's see what they say about leaving the state !

Brazilian politics haven't helped. We all know the mess they've made for themselves, and that was sufficient to next make the western political leaders, led by USA, to decide to skip the opening ceremonies yesterday.

Of course the downturn of the bullish Brazilian economy that made their bid for the game years ago seemed triumphant now seem foolhardy. The talk of playing to empty stadiums has been nicely played up in the  media.

But watching the opening ceremonies (even these were sabotagued by US Networks showing delayed telecast) we can make an excellent comparison with the best staging of world-class sporting events elsewhere. I think the Brazilians have put up a show worthy of these Games.

To think that even in days prior to the start of the Rio Olympics, Western media still found it newsworthy to dwell on the petty street crimes, the sewage spill in the bay, the cracks on the newly paved roads, the lodging problems in the Olympics Village and other nasty creature comfort issues that actually right now plague all the leading Western capital cities.

Expect mishaps in the next two weeks. These always happen when you put a million human beings in one place. But let's also appreciate the good things that are achieved, not least of which is the spirit of goodwill sought for, and the contribution of  everybody who tries very hard to make these Games a success. When that happens, and I'm sure it will, we all owe Brazil a big "bravo".  

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